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VERSION:2.0
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SUMMARY:Supramolecular Antivirals
DTSTART:20190311T121500
DTSTAMP:20260506T221251Z
UID:85826db92d224ce3264b1d041b2f447d297c3999e5c77a1ce7168c81
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Francesco Stellacci\, EPFL\, Lausanne (CH)\nWEEKLY BIOEN
 GINEERING COLLOQUIA SERIES\n(sandwiches served)\n\nAbstract: \nViral infec
 tions are among the main causes of death in the world. When prevention is 
 not an option\, antiviral drugs are the last resort to prevent the spread 
 and the mortality of these infections. There are only a few effective drug
 s on the market\, for the most part they prevent intracellular viral repli
 cation. Unfortunately\, they are too few when compared to the many viruses
  that threaten humans.\nIn this talk\, I will show a new design rule to ac
 hieve drugs that fight viruses extracellularly by irreversibly inhibiting 
 their infectivity\, i.e. I will show how to create virucidal compounds. Th
 e design of these macromolecular virucidal agents starts by a bio-mimic ap
 proach and is characterized by the limited toxicity towards host cells tha
 t one would expect from such compounds. Yet\, I will demonstrate that the 
 multivalent binding to the viruses\, coupled with a large hydrophobic cont
 act between the compounds and the virus leads to a loss of integrity of th
 e virion that obviously leads to an irreversible loss of infectivity. Resu
 lts in and ex-vivo will be illustrated especially for the cases of influen
 za\, herpes\, and respiratory syncytial virus.\n\nBio:\nProf. Francesco St
 ellacci got his degree in Materials Engineering at the Politecnico di Mila
 no in 1998 with Prof. Zerbi. He then moved as a post-doc with Prof. J.W. P
 erry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Arizona. In 2002 
 he became as assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science an
 d Engineering at MIT (Cambridge\, USA). There he became associate professo
 r with tenure in 2009. In 2010\, he moved as a full professor to EPFL wher
 e he holds the Constellium Chair. Stellacci has published more than 130 pa
 pers and has more than 15 patent applications. He has won numerous awards\
 , among the Technology Review TR35 ’top innovator under 35’\, the Popu
 lar Science Magazine ’Brilliant 10’\, and the EMRS EU40. He is a Fello
 w of the Royal Society of Chemistry\, of the Global Young Academy\, and of
  the European Academy of Sciences.\n\nZoom link for attending remotely: ht
 tps://epfl.zoom.us/j/122107095
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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